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Pheasant Farming 



By 'GE1NE M. SIMPSON 








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SIMPSON'S PHEASANT FARM 



CORVALLIS, OREGON, U. S. A. 




Price Twenty-five Cents 



LIBRARY of CONFESS 

Two Copies Receive 

JAN 27 1908 



Copyrighted 1908 

By 'Gene M. Simpson 

Corvallis, Oregon 



Pheasant Farming 



Containing 

General Information About Pheasants 
With In£rudions.How to Raise Them 



By 

'GENE M. SIMPSON 

of" 

Simpson's Pheasant Farm 
Corvallis, Oregon 



1908 



Press of 

Benton County Republican 

Corvallis, Oregon 



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Foreword. 



tj Every person to whom I have sold pheas- 
ants or eggs, has written me for information, 
either as to the nature of the birds or how to 
raise them. It has been my desire to answer 
these inquiries in full that my patrons might 
have the benefit of whatever knowledge I 
might have obtained on the subject, and profit 
by my experience in raising pheasants. These 
inquiries have been so varied that it has been 
impracticable to answer them by let'er, and 
hence I have ventured to prepare this booklet. 
There are many ways of raising pheasants, just 
as there are many ways of raising chickens. 
The methods described in the pages to follow 
are not contended to be the only ways, but 
they are methods the writer has followed with 
success, and therefore recommends as a "good 
way." 

•J This booklet is offered with the hope 
that after reading it, someone may be encour- 
aged to take up the breeding of pheasants 
either for pleasure or profit, or that those already 
so engaged may be assisted in their work. 

'Gene M. Simpson 

Simpson's Pheasant Farm 
Corvallis, Oregon 



Pheasants 



There are many varieties of pheasants but for practi- 
cal purposes they may be divided into two general classes, 
(1) those used as game, and (2) those used exclusively 
for show and ornamentation. In the first class there are 
three principal varieties: the Chinese, English Ring-neck 
and Common or English Black-neck. Other varieties 
closely allied to these are the Japanese, Mongolian, 
Reeves, Hagenbeck, Prince of Wales, Scemerings; but 
the three kinds first named are by far the most prominent 
game varieties. The latter named pheasants are reared 
for their beautiful plumage, the Japanese and Reeves 
being the most common. The Mongolian comes from 
the interior of China, and there are perhaps not a dozen 
true Mongolian pheasants in America. All of the 
pheasants above named are true pheasants of which the 
generica acientific name is Phasiaiiits. The Golden, 
Amherst and Silver are called pheasants, and, while al- 
most identical in nature and requiring the same treatment, 
yet are not true pheasants. 

The Chinese Pheasant (Phasianus torquatus) 
and the Common or English Black-neck pheasant 
{Phasiamis Colchicus) are each separate and distinct 
varieties of pheasants, while the English Ring-neck is a 
hybrid of the two. This latter bird, English Ring-neck, 
is the common pheasant of England today and by far 
the most common variety met with in the United States. 
It is frequently confounded with the Chinese. The 



English Black-neck pheasant is in general nature and 
form the same as the Chinese, differing in this that the 
English Black-neck is of a general mahogany red cast 
and has no ring around the neck, while the Chinese is 
lighter and brighter in color and has a silky white ring 
or band around the neck. The English Ring-neck re- 
tains the mahogany red cast, though not so pronounced 
as the English Black-neck, and has the white collar of 
the Chinese, hence the name English Ring-neck, indicat- 
ing the combination of these two differences. 

The old English Black-neck was probably introduced 
into England before the Norman Conquest. There is a 
record of the birds being served as early as A. D. 1059, 
but now they have so interbred with the Chinese that it 
is difficult to find a pure specimen. Those on my farm 
are from imported stock and religiously kept by them- 
selves. 

The pure Chinese pheasant is the game bird par ex- 
cellence. Taken all in all, it is a serious question wheth- 
er or not he has any superior as an all around game bird. 
It is utter folly to hunt them without a dog. Their abil- 
ity to conceal themselves, even in the scantiest cover, is 
wonderful. Without a dog it is not uncommon to pass 
within ten feet of one hidden in the grass, without his 
rising. When running in cover they move very swiftly 
with the body close to the ground and possess the ability 
to pass through grass, short or tall, without disturbing the 
surface. When overtaken by the dog, they will lie well, 
and this fact combined with the further fact that they 



are always found in the open, makes pheasant shooting 
the cleanest bird shooting in the world. 

Possessed of remarkable vitality, they do not succumb 
to slight gunshot wounds. Being clean limbed, with 
powerful thighs, they are exceptionally fleet on foot, and 
if winged only, the pheasant falls running, and here the 
dog is put to his severest test. Very few dogs can 
track a crippled Chinaman their first season, but an ex- 
perienced setter or pointer learns to recognize the 
wounded birds and endeavors to be as near him as 
possible when he touches the ground. 

Besides his gameiness and delicate flesh, he is un- 
questionably one of the most ornamental of the game 
birds. He is a native of the northern part of China, be- 
ing found as far north as the Amour and as far south as 
Shanghai. The question is often asked if the Chinese 
pheasant can stand the heat and cold. A reference to 
the map of China will answer the question. The pheas- 
ant has succeeded over the larger part of Europe even 
as far north as Sweden. On this continent it does well 
in Canada and Nova Scotia but nowhere has its intro- 
duction been attended with such prolific results as in the 
Willamette Valley in the state of Oregon. I do not 
know which is to be congratulated most, the Willamette 
Valley for having the beautiful and gamey pheasants, or 
the pheasants for having been so fortunate as to find so 
delightful a valley. 

It was stated by an eminent authority on pheasants 
that in 1893 there were more Chinese pheasants in 
Oregon than in the whole Chinese Empire. Credence 



is lent this statement when it is remembered that it is 
reliably estimated that in one year 30,000 were killed 
in one county in this state alone, and the same year 
1200 dozen were shipped to the San Francisco market. 
There could be no better testimonial of the adaptability 
of the Chinese pheasant as a bird for restocking a state 
with game than this last statement, which comes irom no 
less an authority than Judge Denny, the man who into- 
duced the pheasant into Oregon. For sometime Judge 
Denny had been United States Consul General at Shang- 
hai and it was from there that he sent the birds to Ore- 
gon. The rapidity with which the birds increased in 
this state is made more marvelous when it is remember- 
ed that they were not introduced until 1882 and then 
only 50 birds were liberated. They were protected ab- 
solutely for seven years and thereafter an open season 
of six weeks was provided, which is now enlarged to 
two months. If the laws were observed the number of 
pheasants in Oregon would continue to increase with 
each year. The rapidity of their increase is doubtless 
due to the large egg production. It is held by those 
most familiar with the birds that under ordinary conditions 
the hen will raise two broods, and in favorable seasons 
she will care for three broods, in which duties she is 
assisted by the cock. Thus, in the field, she will lay 
from 15 to 40 eggs in a season. When in confinement 
the hen makes small pretense to brood, but will lay more 
eggs. 

What is said of the Chinese Pheasant will apply 
equally to the English Ring-neck and English Pheasant, 




1 



•except that the Chinese phsasant is more wild than the 
other pheasants named, and more beautiful and gamey. 
In the open the nests are concealed in the tangled grass, 
but in confinement the eggs are dropped at random, the 
hens seldom attempting to form a nest. Hens may be 
■expected to commence laying about the first of April 
The Chinese and English will lay from 50 to 60 eggs 
in one season, although I have known of a China hen 
laying as many as 83 eggs in a season, and a customer 
in Nanaimo, B. C, claims over 1 80 eggs from two 
English Ring-neck hens in one year. Golden pheasants 
will lay from 25 to 30 eggs in one season. The per 
centage of fertility in all pheasant eggs is remarkably 
great. It is not at all uncommon for every egg to hatch. 
One setting of 1 2 was obtained after the hen had been 
incubating two weeks. The eggs were carried in a 
buggy ten miles, placed under a bantam and every egg 
hatched. The eggs are a greenish gray in color and 
about the size of a common bantam egg. 

In the wild state the pheasant seldom roosts in a tree, 
and then only in one that is open, so it is in confinement, 
while they may stay in the shedded part of their pen in 
the daytime, just at dusk they select a place with an open 
sky above them in which to pass the night, and this, too, 
regardless of the inclemency of the weather. They seem 
to be indifferent to snow and rain and after a night out 
in the rain, appear none the worse for the drenching. 
They commonly roost on the ground with feathers drawn 
down tight to the body. 

The young pheasants all have the same plumage until 



about two months old, that of a grayish brown. When a 
month old it will be noted that the feathers on the back 
of the neck near the body on some of the young birds 
will show slightly lighter in color and with a salmon 
colored cast. These are the hens, the corresponding 
feathers on the cocks remaining darker and near the 
color of the remainder of the plumage. When two 
months old, splotches of chestnut red will begin to appear 
on the breasts of the cocks. The hens undergo small 
changes in plumage, and while of a general fawn color, 
some of the tints shown on her neck are very beautiful. 
The cocks continue to change color rapidly until at five 
months they will be in full plumage. Their wealth of 
color, surpassing the rainbow in variety, gorgeous but 
delicately blended, beggars description. The artist's 
brush has never reproduced it, much less can the pen 
portray an idea of its beauty. Graceful in form, with 
his splendid robes, the cock Chinese Pheasant is one of 
the most beautiful birds in existence. The eye never 
tires of admiring his plumage. He is a source of contin- 
ual delight to the breeder. 

If you can raise turkeys, you can raise pheasants. 
Like turkeys when matured they are very hardy. The 
young of the pheasant, like young turkeys, are susceptible 
to dampness, and should be kept from the wet grass. 
In fact the similarity between the young pheasant and 
young turkey is very marked. Some of their calls, par- 
ticularly one given at nightfall, are almost identical, and 
in general, treatment adapted to turkeys may safely be 
applied to pheasants. When young, the birds are tame 



and soon learn to know their keeper. They will become 
sufficiently familiar to fly upon the keeper's shoulder, or 
eat out of his hand, but the appearance of a stranger 
calls for a note of warning to the whole flock. This note 
is low but quick, and its effect is instantaneous. During 
the laying season it is not advisable to allow strangers to 
visit the pens where the pheasants can see them, and 
better success will be obtained if only one or two persons 
visit the pheasant?, and these should be the ones to feed 
them. The birds will be better controlled if the same 
garments are worn each time, as they instantly detect a 
change in dress. They will avoid for a day or more 
anything new placed in their pens. Some breeders 
place fir boughs or branches of other trees in the pens to 
offer a hiding place for the pheasants, but it is not at all 
necessary. The pens described further on provide for a 
portion being shedded. This applies only to localities 
where there is considerable rainfall. In drier sections of 
the country, this shed might be supplanted by a small 
evergreen tree or two in the pen. 

The larger the pens in which your pheasants are kept 
the better. They are polygamous and four hens and a 
cock may be kept in a pen 1 6 feet square. This is a 
very convenient size, but in any event the birds should 
each have 50 square feet of ground. It is of advantage 
to have the pens so arranged that the pheasants may be 
changed from one pen to the other occasionally. This 
permits the ground to freshen and it is a good plan to 
spade up the ground occasionally. A very satisfactory 
pen for a trio (two hens and a cock) would be 1 6 feet 




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by 32 feet, divided lengthwise with a partition and shed- 
ded for 8 feet along one end, the shedded end being so 
arranged to ward off as much of the storm as possible. 
Convenient entrances may be arranged and provision 
should be made that the birds may pass from one pen 
to another at the keeper's pleasure. 

The photograph shows a pen 32 feet wide and 48 
feet long divided into six pens each 8 ft. by 32 ft. The 
posts are 2 by 4 inches, the two bottom boards each 
1 2 inches wide and the top boards 6 inches wide. 
The top and sides are of poultry netting. Partitions are 
built the same as the ends. For old birds the wire used 
should be a 2-inch poultry netting, but if also to be used 
in which to keep the young birds with mother, one-inch 
mesh should be used. Don't stretch the wire too tightly, 
otherwise the birds may injure themselves by flying 
against it. There is an entrance door in the shedJed 
with other doors leading through the shedded pait 
part of each partition from pen to pen. Have a lock 
for the entrance door with hook and eye fastening on the 
inside. Don't leave doors unfastened any longer than 
absolutely necessary to pass through. Pheasants are as 
quick as lightning. 

Use a good motherly hen to hatch your pheasants, 
and for this purpose the Cochin bantam has no superior. 
Don't use an incubator. If a bantam hen is used 
set her on from 9 to 12 eggi. Put her in a nest where 
she will not be disturbed and treat as if on ordinary eggs 
until the 22nd day. For a nest mike a box 1 4 inches 
square (bottom) 1 8 inches high in front, and 1 4 inches 



in back. Across the front, beginning at bottom nail on 
a board 3 inches wide; within 2 inches of the top nail 
across another board the same width. This leaves a 
space 1 2 by 14 inches. Next take a board to fit this 
opening and fasten it to the bottom 3 inch board with a 
hinge so it will act as a door and open down. Place 
fastening at top to hold it closed. When opened down 
this door forms an approach for the hen to get back 
into the nest after she has been off to feed. It is advis- 
able to connect several nests together using one board 
for coutinuous top, bottom and back. If nest is to be 
left outside, the top should extend over a few inches in 
front and back. To make the nest proper, first place 
two inches of clean damp dirt in the bottom of the box 
and on this arrange some soft straw or grass hay as for 
chickens. The number of nests will of course depend 
on the number of pheasant hens you have. Place the 
nests around the sides (inside) of a house or enclosed 
pen provided with a watering cup. Each day at a 
regular hour, place feed in the house or pen, open the 
doors to the nests, and see that the hens all come off. 
After they have eaten and had a drink, which will 
occupy about twenty minutes time, they will return to 
the nests when the doors should be shut and left for 
another day. If possible provide a dust bath for the 
hens in addition to their food and water. 

The eggs keep as well as chicken eggs and it is a 
good plan to set several hens at once if you have the 
eggs. Always keep a record of the dates when hens 
are set that you may know when to expect the young 



birds. Pheasants will hatch atout the 23rd day, and 

all the eggs under each hen hatch at the same time. 

The disposition is to leave the nest immediately, hence 

the added advantage of having the hen locked up. Do 

not remove the young pheasants from the nest until 24 

hours old. Remaining under the hen gives them strength. 

At the end of this period remove hen and pheasants to 

a box about 1 8 inches by 3 feet in size and place where 

it can have the benefit of the sun. Provide a shade for 

part of the box. Sprinkle the bottom thickly with sand, 

give water in small fountain and cover box with a piece 

of wire netting. The object of this box is to keep the 

young pheasants near the foster mother until they learn 

her call, the small size of the box keeping them always 

near her. Have ready a runway made 1 x2x5 feet in 

size, the ends made of boards 1 x2 feet strengthened by 

cleats nailed across the grain, these ends connected by 

four strips 1x3 inches and the whole covered with a 

strip of 5 -foot 2 -inch mesh poultry netting stretched tight 

(see photograph). It may here be remarked that for 

fastening poultry netting, I have found No. 1 1 double 

pointed lacks well adapted. Make a box 2 feet square 

with top hinged in back as shown in photograph and 

opening in front to correspond with opening cut in one 

end of lunway for a coop. The front of this coop 

should be slightly higher than runway. Place the two 

together as seen in photograph. Place this coop and 

runvs ay in large pen so as to receive protection of shed 

but so that runway may have benefit of morning sun. 

After the hen has been kept in box four or five days re- 



move her and pheasants to this coop. Make this change 
at twilight and see that all the pheasants go under the 
hen before leaving them. A wire screen may be slipped 
between the coop and runway as a precaution against 
the pheasants getting out the first night. It should be 
removed early in the morning. The change if made in 
the day greatly alarms the small birds. The wire run- 
way prevents the hen wandering about and if a bantam 
she will be continually hovering. The small pheasants 
can easily pass through the 2-inch meshes, besides the 
pheasants can be fed food different from the hen. In 
about two months you will notice that the pheasants are 
no longer roosting under the hen, but are huddling to- 
gether in corner of pen outside. It is now time to re- 
move the hen as they will never return to her. 

Place a drinking fountain outside of runway but so 
hen may reach it. Drinking fountains as shown in the 
illustration should f 

be used, Always 0m-\ f IB 
keep drinking water jHL JUBLJ 
betore your pheas- ^^=^f^^^^^^^| _ ___^SL 

ants and in warm —■ = ~— = — ^== = — 

weather see that it is changed daily. Cleanliness is es- 
sential. Your hens should not have lice, but if you have 
cause to fear them, when the young pheasants are taken 
off the nest, grease the top and under part of each one's 
head with vaseline or olive oil. The latter may conve- 
niently be applied with a sewing machine oiler. When 
the hen is placed in the nest, dust her feathers thorough- 
ly with buhach powders and give her another dusting a 



few days before time to hatch. If eggs get foul, wash 
them with tepid water while hen is eating. Early in the 
season give each hen 1 or 12 birds; later the number 
may be increased to twenty. As with chickens the im- 
portant item is the feed. When the birds have been re- 
moved from the nest to box, give them a little chopped 
lettuce or tender cabbage or rape, preferably the lettuce, 
and a small amount of this ration should be given them 
daily. Also feed hard boiled egg, shell and all, chop- 
ped up and crumbled with rolled oats or corn meal. 
Feed the mother hen wheat, but feed the little pheas- 
ants four times a day with the egg mixture. Feed but 
a small amount each time and feed it to them fresh. 
Stale egg mixture or too much egg, means fowl trouble. 
After a week they may be fed only three times a day. 
The egg mixture may be alternated with fine ground 
lean meat rubbed with shorts until crumbly. Too much 
meat will cause leg weakness. Keep Diamond Chick 
food before them all the time. They may also be given 
a small amount of boiled rice and curd occasionally. 
After birds are one month old, keep cracked soft wheat 
or chick food before them all the time and until three 
months old feed them sparingly fresh hamburger steak 
crumbled with shorts once a day. After this give whole 
soft wheat and gradually reduce meat diet until when 

five months old the meat may be omitted, however it is 
advisable to give your pheasants an occasional feed of 
meat and particularly during the laying season. Give 
the growing pheasants all the green food they will eat. 
In addition to the greens mentioned above they are ond 
of mangels and carrots. 



By soft wheat is meant the soft varieties of wheat as 
distinguished from the hard varieties. While the pheas- 
ant is omnivirous, still insects are especially relished. In 
the wild state they seem to feed upon the seeds most 
available. In China they frequent the millet fields, and 
an examination of the crops of a large number of birds 
killed in Oregon, disclosed a large variety of grains and 
seeds with a large percentage of bugs. 

For feeding young pheasants, the most successful re- 
sults have been obtained with the larvae of the com; n on 
blue fly (maggots). When this food is used nothing else 
need be fed, except greens occasionally, until the birds 
are a month old, however the chick food or cracked 
wheat should be kept before them that they may learn 
to eat it and be prepared to adapt themselves to the 
whole wheat diet when the larvae food has been discon- 
tinued, which should be done gradually. 

The objection to the larvae food is the offensive odor 
ordinarily associated with it. This may be overcome 
by raising the larvae scientifically. Contrary to this com- 
monly accepted idea, the larvae of the fly prefers fresh to 
decaying meat. Prof. McGillivary of Qysens Uai verity, 
Toronto, who has successfully raised English Ring-neck 
pheasants, says; "Our investigation and study of ento- 
mology prove to us that maggots separated from their 
usual surroundings, are just as clean and odorless as 
young chickens. Flies do not lay their eggs on tainted 
meat when fresh meat can be found, and maggots are 
clean feeders from choice and thrive best on fresh meat." 

If the following method is employed, there will be lit- 



tie or no odor. Secure a quantity of green bone and 
meat trimmings coarsely ground together. Take a tin 
pan with straight sides at least three inches deep and 
cover bottom with shorts or fine dirt. On this place the 
bone and meat mixture and leave where the flies may 
have access to same. In warm weather the fly eggs 
will hatch in about two days time and the bone mixture 
will be partially dried up. The larvae are adverse to 
strong light and will be found to have gone to the dirt 
or shorts. They must now have something to feed up- 
on. Remove the bone mixture and place thin slices of 
fresh liver on the shorts or dirt. Turn the bone mixture 
back on top of the slices of liver. In a few hours the 
larvae will all leave the bone mixture and be under and 
feeding upon the liver. After this the bone mixture 
should be thrown away. 

In a day's time the liver will be eaten to shreds and 
must be replaced with a fresh supply of thinly sliced 
liver or fresh meat, and so on each day until the larvae 
are practically full grown. This will take practically a 
week's time and they may then be fed to the young 
pheasants. The larvae must be fed on liver or meat as 
long as they are on hand. As soon as they are matured 
they will decend into the shorts or dirt and change into 
the pupa state, in which condition they are equally as 
good for feed as when alive. In feeding the liver or 
meat, feed only enough that they will consume it in 24 
hours time. "The assimilating power of the larvae is so 
great that it can change every particle of meat or liver 
(except fibre) to larvae, consequently there can be no 



smell." The object in cutting the liver or meat thin is 
that it may all be cousumed before having time to be- 
come tainted. Keep extra supply of liver in cool place 
and a little charcoal such as is used to feed chickens, 
sprinkled over and under it will tend to keep it fresh. 

In order to keep a supply of larvae, it will be neces- 
sary to put out new pans of bone every few days depend- 
ing on quantity, the number of pheasants you have and the 
state of weather. The warmer the weather the more 
rapid the development of the larvae. If you contem- 
plate using larvae, you should start with the bone mixture 
a week prior to date of first hatching. 

The advantage of this food is that you need not 
hesitate to feed young birds all they will eat. They are 
wild for it and will frequently crowd their crops and 
throats to overflowing with no apparent bad results. 
They thrive better on this food than on anything else. 
Other methods may be employed to produce the larvae 
but it should be remembered that but 1 5 days time 
elapse from the laying of the fly egg until it has success- 
fully become larvae, entered the pupa state, and turned 
into a fly again, that the larvae are clean feeders and 
that they must have a medium (shorts, or clean fine dirt, 
perferably) in which to bury themselves. When about 
ten days old they pass into the pupa state in which form 
they may be kept if stored at a low temperature (40 
degree F.) The low temperature stops the development. 

Everyone is familiar with the history of the butterfly, 
how an ugly worm dries up in the fall of the year and 
in springtime breaks open to release a beautiful butterfly. 



This dried worm is the pupa, and just as the butterfly's 
egg dries up and later produces a perfect insect, so the 
larvae of the common fly when grown dries up and later 
produces a fly again, only the change to the fly is ac- 
complished in a few days instead of months. 

Should the pan of shorts or dirt become heated it 
means that the larvae are too crowded and will leave if 
possible. A part should be removed to another pan or 
given a larger proportion of shorts or dirt. With facts 
above, your own ingenuity and some experience will 
suggest convenient methods for producing larvae. 

The true pheasants (Pliasiamis) will breed the 
following spring after hatchings, while the male birds of 
the Golden, Amherst, Silver and Swinhoe are not in full 
plumage until the second year. The first two will breed 
at a year old but the latter two not until two years old. 
Silver and Swinhoes should be mated in pairs. For 
stocking purposes, pheasants should be liberated in pairs. 

Birds are shipped by express in slatted crates covered 
with burlap and take single merchandise rate. From 
one to four may be shipped in one crate the whole 
weighing about 25 to 26 pounds, depending on number 
of birds. I provide the crate with food, a cup for water 
and affix permit for shipping with printed instructions to 
express agent. Eggs are shipped in improved crates. 
(See illustration). My advise to persons desiring to en- 
gage in pheasant breeding is to buy a trio, but in any 
event try a setting of eggs even if you let the pheasants 
go when they are large enough to care for themselves. 
The pleasure derived will repay you for all expense and 
trouble. 




Patent Crate for Shipping Pheasant Eggs 

By inquiring of your local express agent you can as- 
certain the cost of transportation on either live birds or 
eggs, but bear in mind that the birds go as single mer- 
chandise, slatted crates. I guarantee that the birds will 
be delivered to the Express Company in Corvallis in first 
class order. Out of one shipment of 100 birds to the 
state of Kansas from Corvallis, Oregon, only one bird 
died. 

I am asked to reccmmend a variety to the tyro. 
This is difficult to do. So far as the raising is concern- 
ed there is little difference. The question of beauty is 
one of opinion. Personally, I regard the Golden and 
Chinese the most beautiful, but the Golden as already 
stated, does not put on his fine plumage until the second 
year. 

It is well to clip the wings of the birds when about 
two or three weeks old. To do this, use care, extend 
the wing fully and cut each pinion feather from middle 
of wing outward, cutting between shaft and quill. Do 
not cut the remaining feathers or you will leave the lungs 
unprotected. The pinion or flight feathers are the coarse 
feathers near the tip of the wing. I also advise pinion- 



ing pheasants where they are kept in aviarie?. This 
does not injure their looks, as the absence of the flight 
feathers is unnoticed, and the birds cannot injure them- 
selves by striking against wire, and also has the added 
abvantage of permitting birds to be kept in yards enclos- 
ed by a six or eight foot fence only, eliminating the cost 
of wire covering overhead. The operation requires no 
skill and consists in clipping off the wing at the first joint 
with a sharp pair of scissors. It may be performed at 
all ages, but the best time is when they are about two 
weeks old. 

To catch pheasants use a net similar in shape to a 
fisherman's landing net but made of material similar to 
domestic, and provided with a four foot handle. In 
handling the birds" don't hold by leg or wing. The 
wing bone particularly, is very fragile and a broken wing 
or leg will result if you are careless in this regard. 

In the introduction of the pheasant Oregon is the pio- 
neer. The success that has followed the venture has 
encouraged her neighbors on the North and East, 
Washington and Idaho, to follow her example. Last 
year 1 000 pheasants were shipped from Oregon to the 
state of Washington, and more are ordered for the com- 
ing season. Kansas, Illinois, Colorado and Minnesota 
are working toward restocking with pheasants, and Cal- 
ifornia is seriously considering the matter. 

The pheasant industry has come to stay, and the 
writer ventures the assertion that before many years the 
pheasant will be known in every state in the Union. 

Why not be one of the pioneers yourself, and in ad- 
dition to the pleasure and profit you will derive, have 
the satisfaction of being responsible for their introduction 
into your own state. 



gg= =^ 



Portland Seed Company's 

Diamond /^l * 1 C J 

Brand t^nick r eecl 



^ The Kind it Pays to Feed ^ 

Endorsed by all Poultrymen 

A. Complete and Perfectly Balanced 

Ration That Will Make Pheasant, 

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Keep Them Healthy 

This Chick Feed of ours is just such a food as the old hen 
would find for her babies if she had free range on the farm. 
That's why it's so successful. By using Diamond Chick Feed 
you are giving the Chicks just what nature intended they 
should have, a food composed of grains (cracked), small 
seeds, grit, bone, dried sweet meat, (to take the place of in- 
sects and bugs), charcoal, etc., mixed in the right proportion 
to produce a quick, and profitable growth without loss. It's 
so convenient, so handy, always ready for use, and you can 
raise so many more chicks by feeding it that it is the cheap- 
est feed you can buy. No drooping wings, weak legs or bow- 
el trouble when you feed "Diamond Brand" Chick Feed. 

Reduced Prices 

5-lb pkg., 25c; 15-lb pkg., 50c; 25-lb sack 90c; 50-lb sack 
$1.60; 100 lbs., $3.00 

We are Headquarters for Po ultry Supplies of All Kinds 
Our Catalog Tells All — Free on Request 

Portland Seed Co. 

Portland, Oregon Spokane, Washington 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



002 856 527 6 



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